France is set to join the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal in recognizing a Palestinian state on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron leads the second phase of the French-Saudi international conference at the United Nations.
Macron will formally announce the recognition, a move he champions, ahead of the UN General Assembly’s opening. In a pre-conference interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, Macron framed the decision as the start of a process, saying, “recognition is the beginning of a political process,” while noting France will not open an embassy in Ramallah until hostages are released.
French President Emmanuel Macron in interview
(Video: CBS News)
Macron highlighted his meetings with the mothers of hostages Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, saying, “For me, the top priority remains the release of hostages. And I met very regularly families of hostages, and I have to say that what they live is unbearable.”
Addressing U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that recognition rewards terrorism and incentivizes Hamas to withhold hostages, Macron countered, “Hamas is just obsessed by destroying Israel.
“Thanks to the diplomatic move we launched, we started to isolate Hamas because we- at the New York declaration, which was voted, as you know, by 142 countries. We gathered all the Arab League states, all the leaders of the regions, to work closely with us to precisely dismantle and disarm Hamas.
Macron argued that denying Palestinians a political future pushes them toward Hamas, noting, “So many Palestinian people who want a state, who are a people. They want a nation, they want a state, and we should not push them towards Hamas. If we don't offer them a political perspective and such a recognition, the unique answer will be security, and they will be completely trapped by Hamas as a unique option.”
He pointed out that Hamas enjoyed limited support before October 7, but its backing has since surged, adding, “if we want to dismantle Hamas, the total war is not the answer, because it's just killing the credibility of Israel- and by the way, weakening and killing our own credibility if we don't make a move as the one we are organizing.”
Macron cited Israel’s Knesset declaration on September 22 to apply sovereignty over the West Bank as a key factor in his decision, calling it proof Israel isn’t focused on fighting Hamas.
“There is no Hamas in West Bank. They just want to destroy the existing political bodies, and the possibility of the two states. And I really believe this is a terrible mistake for Israel itself, because in doing so, they just kill any other perspective that war,” he said.
He also critiqued Trump’s “day after” plan for Gaza, urging the U.S. to address the present. “What we want is a de facto governance in Gaza, with clearly a sort of transitional administration, including the Palestinian Authority, excluding, clearly, Hamas. But with a vetting process of Israel and an association of all the neighbors, we have a security package in this- in this day after approach, which is, let's scale up the training of the policemen and security forces of the Palestinians.”